The Anoshkin Notebook on the Polish Crisis, December 1981

40 COLD WAR INTERNATIONAL HISTORY PROJECT BULLETIN 11
“<strong>The</strong> Assistance Of Warsaw Pact Forces Is Not Ruled Out”
T
he document published below can be
regarded as one of the key Polish sources,
so far declassified, regarding the preparations for
martial law in Poland in 1981. <strong>The</strong> document was
released (upon appeal by the Institute of Political Studies
of the Polish Academy of Sciences) by the Ministry of
Interior in connection with the international conference,
“Poland 1980-1981: Internal Crisis, International
Dimensions” which took place in Jachranka (outside
Warsaw) in November 1997. <strong>The</strong> “Supplement No. 2” was
prepared as an attachment to the document “Assessment
of the present situation in the country as of 25 November
1981” (“Ocena aktualnej sytuacji w kraju wg.stanu na
dzien 25 listopada br.”)
“Supplement No. 2” (original title “Zalacznik nr 2:
Zamierzenia Resortu Spraw Wewnetrznych”) is not
signed, but both its content and classification (“Secret, For
Special Use. Single Copy”), suggest that it is a top-level
document, presumably prepared in the highest ranks of the
Polish government or Communist Party. “<strong>The</strong>
Supplement” considers various possible developments of
the political situation and the alternative strategies to
suppress the “Solidarity” movement. <strong>The</strong> special
legislative act on extraordinary measures, mentioned in the
first paragraph, was never passed in the parliament, and
the only option which was implemented was martial law.
<strong>The</strong> repressive strategy which prevailed was Option 2 of
the “Supplement”—the mass-scale internments of
Solidarity and opposition activists.
However, the most revealing part of the “Supplement”
is its last paragraph. Option (Contingency) No. 3 predicts
that in case of massive and violent resistance to the
imposition of martial law, “assistance of Warsaw Pact
forces is not ruled out.” <strong>The</strong> importance of this statement
consists in the fact that it is the only Polish document thus
far declassified which explicitly mentions potential Soviet
military help as part of the martial law planning. 1 By Pawel Machcewicz
It seems
to contradict the basic argument, upheld by Gen.Wojciech
Jaruzelski and his supporters, that the decision to
introduce martial law was exclusively Polish and that its
ultimate goal was to keep the Soviets away from Poland.
This idea—specifically that the operation started on 13
December 1981 was aimed at saving the nation from Soviet
intervention, which would inevitably lead to the
bloodshed—was the core of the martial law propaganda
(obviously, given the circumstances, it used subtle but
perfectly understandable language). To present day it
remains the main line of Jaruzelski’s political struggle to
defend his past actions.
<strong>The</strong>re is abundant evidence, coming mostly from the
Russian side, suggesting that the real situation was quite
different. 2 Many Soviet documents, including the diary of
General Victor <strong>Anoshkin</strong>’s (Marshal Kulivov’s personal
adjutant) presented at the recent Jachranka conference, 3
describe several occasions on which Jaruzelski or his aides
insisted on obtaining guarantees of “fraternal” help in case
the imposition of the martial law encountered excessive
difficulties. As Jaruzelski and others, however, point out,
the Russian archives have thus far released only selected
minutes of the CPSU Politburo meetings. All of them
suggest that the Soviet leadership rejected the idea of
intervening militarily in Poland. But what about the
minutes of other Politburo meetings? Do they mention
other options? Without free access to the Russian
documentation, the discussion on the Polish crisis will
remain inconclusive. It heightens the significance of
Polish documents, among them “Supplement No. 2,”
which reveal the planning for and the mechanisms of
martial law.
SECRET, FOR SPECIAL USE
Single Copy
SUPPLEMENT NO. 2
PLANNED ACTIVITY OF THE INTERIOR MINISTRY
1. Taking into account the current course of events in
the country as well as the need to discipline society and
reinforce the execution of power, it is necessary to
introduce a legislative act (without an introduction of the
martial law) on extraordinary means of action. <strong>The</strong> latter
act foresees, among others:
- heightened responsibility for the public goods which one
is in charge of, including a prohibition on using factory
goods for purposes not associated with the duties which
are carried out;
- extension of the rights of the managers of workplaces to
give orders to their employees including ones exceeding
their area of responsibility;
- attaching conditions to the rights of strike action such as
the requirement of an earlier exhaustion of compromise
ways of settling arguments, pursuing secret ballots,
receiving approval from a higher trade union organ;
- complete prohibition of the right to strike action in
certain units of the national economy and institutions as
well as authorization of the Council of State to introduce a
prohibition of strike and protest action for a predetermined
period in part or in the whole territory of the state;
- limitation of the right to hold public meetings (also those
of trade unions). Legal use of the means of direct